Safari - method for 4K on YouTube

[AjTee]

Hello,

I know that we can use Chrome for 4K videos on YouTube.

I wonder if there is any way to watch 4K videos on YouTube on Safari?

I mean any unofficial ways...

Do you know about it?

Regards,
J.

 

[.max]

Hi! I’ve had this question too. Could not find anything, so I made an extension to at least let me know when 4K is available. Look up 4Ktube on Mac App Store.

 

[throAU]

There is no way to do this currently, maybe when the new version of Safari drops with Big Sur. Safari/MacOS does not include VP9 codec support. Chrome does it in software which is why it consumes so much power; the processors/GPUs apple use have had hardware decode support for 3-4 years, but they do not expose the capability to the OS.

However given they're making a thing about the ATV4k and the Mac supporting 4k Netflix in Big Sur, maybe there's hope that they are including support for modern codecs other than h.265 in upcoming software releases. The hardware can do it.

 

[AjTee]

Hi! I’ve had this question too. Could not find anything, so I made an extension to at least let me know when 4K is available. Look up 4Ktube on Mac App Store.

This is not a solution. I want direct 4K in Safari.

There is no way to do this currently, maybe when the new version of Safari drops with Big Sur. Safari/MacOS does not include VP9 codec support. Chrome does it in software which is why it consumes so much power; the processors/GPUs apple use have had hardware decode support for 3-4 years, but they do not expose the capability to the OS.

However given they're making a thing about the ATV4k and the Mac supporting 4k Netflix in Big Sur, maybe there's hope that they are including support for modern codecs other than h.265 in upcoming software releases. The hardware can do it.

Yeah, we have to wait then.